[drupal-devel] Why does node_save return $node->nid and not $node?

Hi y'all. I've often wondered why node_save returns the nid instead of the whole node. I've written code a couple of times where I want to programmatically generate a node. I set $node->type, $node->uid and send it off to node_save. At that point I'd like to get the filled out node back, but instead usually have to call node_load with the nid I just got. Is there a reason for this that I'm unaware of? thanks Robert